mcp-abap-adt: Your Gateway to ABAP Development Tools (ADT)

This project provides a server that allows you to interact with SAP ABAP systems using the Model Context Protocol (MCP). It connects AI clients to real ADT capabilities: read, analyze, and modify ABAP artifacts with a consistent, secure interface.

Why teams use it:

• Works with on‑prem and BTP ABAP systems

• Destination‑based auth (service keys) so you stop pasting tokens everywhere

• Multiple transports: stdio, HTTP, SSE

• Rich tool surface for ABAP objects, metadata, transports, and search

Authorization & Destinations (Important): A destination is the filename of a service key stored locally. You place service keys in the service-keys directory, and use --mcp=<destination> to select which one to use. This is the primary auth model for on‑prem and BTP systems. See Authentication & Destinations.

You can configure MCP clients either manually (JSON/TOML) or via the configurator CLI (@mcp-abap-adt/configurator, repo: mcp-abap-adt-conf).

Table of Contents

1. Getting Started

2. Architecture

3. Quick Start

4. Terminology

5. Authorization & Destinations

6. Registries

7. Features

8. Documentation

9. Dependencies

10. Running the Server

Getting Started

Install the server and configure your client using the configurator:

Full configurator usage (separate repo): CLIENT_INSTALLERS.md.

Terminology

Destination: a local service key filename. You store service keys in the service-keys directory, and pass the filename (without extension) via --mcp=<destination> to select which system to use.

See docs/user-guide/TERMINOLOGY.md for the full list.

Authorization & Destinations

Destination-based auth is the default. Drop service keys into the service-keys folder and use the filename as your destination:

For full details (paths, .env, direct headers), see Authentication & Destinations.

Architecture

The project provides two main usage patterns:

1. Standalone MCP Server (Default)

Run as a standalone MCP server with stdio, HTTP, or SSE transport:

2. Embeddable Server (For Integration)

Embed MCP server into existing applications (e.g., SAP CAP/CDS, Express):

Quick Start

1. Install server: See Installation Guide

2. Configure client (auto): Use mcp-conf from @mcp-abap-adt/configurator (repo: mcp-abap-adt-conf, docs: CLIENT_INSTALLERS.md)

3. Configure client (manual): See Client Configuration

4. Use: See Available Tools

Registries

Published in the official MCP Registry and listed on Glama.ai.

• MCP Registry: docs/deployment/MCP_REGISTRY.md

• Glama.ai:

Features

• 🏗️ Domain Management: GetDomain, CreateDomain, UpdateDomain - Create, retrieve, and update ABAP domains

• 📊 Data Element Management: GetDataElement, CreateDataElement, UpdateDataElement - Create, retrieve, and update ABAP data elements

• 📦 Table Management: GetTable, CreateTable, GetTableContents - Create and retrieve ABAP database tables with data preview

• 🏛️ Structure Management: GetStructure, CreateStructure - Create and retrieve ABAP structures

• 👁️ View Management: GetView, CreateView, UpdateView - Create and manage CDS Views and Classic Views

• 🎓 Class Management: GetClass, CreateClass, UpdateClass - Create, retrieve, and update ABAP classes

• 📝 Program Management: GetProgram, CreateProgram, UpdateProgram - Create, retrieve, and update ABAP programs

• 🔧 Behavior Definition (BDEF) Management: GetBehaviorDefinition, CreateBehaviorDefinition, UpdateBehaviorDefinition - Create and manage ABAP Behavior Definitions with support for Managed, Unmanaged, Abstract, and Projection types

• 📋 Metadata Extension (DDLX) Management: CreateMetadataExtension, UpdateMetadataExtension - Create and manage ABAP Metadata Extensions

• ⚡ Activation: ActivateObject - Universal activation for any ABAP object

• 🚚 Transport Management: CreateTransport, GetTransport - Create and retrieve transport requests

• 🔍 Enhancement Analysis: GetEnhancements, GetEnhancementImpl, GetEnhancementSpot - Enhancement discovery and analysis

• 📋 Include Management: GetIncludesList - Recursive include discovery

• 🔍 System Tools: GetInactiveObjects - Monitor inactive objects waiting for activation

• 🚀 SAP BTP Support: JWT/XSUAA authentication with browser-based token helper

• 🔑 Destination-Based Authentication: Service key-based authentication with automatic token management (see Client Configuration)

• 💾 Freestyle SQL: GetSqlQuery - Execute custom SQL queries via ADT Data Preview API

ℹ️ ABAP Cloud limitation: Direct ADT data preview of database tables is blocked by SAP BTP backend policies. The server returns a descriptive error when attempting such operations. On-premise systems continue to support data preview.

Documentation

For Users

• Docs Index - Full documentation index

• Installation Guide - Installation overview and platform guides

• User Guide - End-user docs (auth, config, tools)

• Authentication & Destinations - Destination-based auth and service keys

• Handlers Management - Enable/disable handler groups

• Configurator: @mcp-abap-adt/configurator (repo: mcp-abap-adt-conf) provides the mcp-conf CLI to auto-configure clients

• Available Tools - Complete list of available MCP tools

For Administrators

• Deployment Docs - MCP Registry, Docker, release notes

• Server Configuration - YAML config reference

For Developers

• Architecture Documentation - System architecture and design decisions

• Development Documentation - Testing guides and development resources

• CHANGELOG.md - Version history and changes

Dependencies

This project uses two npm packages:

• @mcp-abap-adt/connection – connection/auth/session layer

• @mcp-abap-adt/adt-clients – Builder-first ADT clients

These packages are automatically installed via npm install and are published to npm.

Running the Server

Global Installation (Recommended)

After installing globally with npm install -g, you can run from any directory:

Development Mode

Environment Configuration

The server automatically looks for .env file in this order:

1. Path specified via --env argument

2. .env in current working directory (where you run the command)

3. .env in package installation directory

Example .env file:

For JWT authentication (SAP BTP):

Generate .env from Service Key (JWT):

This will automatically create/update .env file with JWT tokens and connection details.

Claude recommendation: place the service key in the service-keys directory and use --mcp=<destination> (avoid manual JWT tokens).

Command-Line Options

Authentication:

• --auth-broker - Force use of auth-broker (service keys), ignore .env file

• --auth-broker-path=<path> - Custom path for auth-broker service keys and sessions

• --unsafe - Enable file-based session storage (persists tokens to disk). By default, sessions are stored in-memory (secure, lost on restart)

Examples:

See Client Configuration for complete configuration options.

Handler logging switches

• AUTH_LOG_LEVEL=error|warn|info|debug — sets base log level for handler logger; DEBUG_AUTH_LOG=true also enables debug.

• HANDLER_LOG_SILENT=true — fully disables handler logging.

• DEBUG_CONNECTORS=true — verbose connection logging in high-level handlers.

• DEBUG_HANDLERS=true — enables verbose logs for selected read-only/system handlers.

Development

Testing

Test logging switches

• TEST_LOG_LEVEL=error|warn|info|debug — controls test logger verbosity (DEBUG_TESTS/DEBUG_ADT_TESTS/DEBUG_CONNECTORS force debug).

• TEST_LOG_FILE=/tmp/adt-tests.log — writes test logs to a file (best-effort).

• TEST_LOG_SILENT=true — disables test logging pipeline (console output muted).

• TEST_LOG_COLOR=true — adds colored/prefixed tags to test log lines.

• All console.* in tests are routed through the test logger with a [test] prefix.

Building

Developer Tools

Contributors

Thank you to all contributors! See CONTRIBUTORS.md for the complete list.

Acknowledgment: This project was originally inspired by mario-andreschak/mcp-abap-adt. We started with the core concept and then evolved it into an independent project with our own architecture and features.